Sales tag marking means



June 9, 1956 J. R. LEWIS 2,750,857

SALES TAG MARKING MEANS Filed Sept. 5, 1953 INVENTOR JOSEPH A. LEW/sUnited States Patent SALES TAG MARKING MEANS Joseph R. Lewis, Brooklyn,N. Y.

Application September 3, 1953, Serial No. 378,358

Claims. (Cl. 93-88) This invention relates to means for marking andcoding sales tags such as used in the retail sale of garments andwearing apparel.

In the retail garment sales field, all garments are tagged with smalltickets containing various information. The most important informationis the size of the garment and the price. Other information, such asstock numbers, style numbers, inventory control account numbers and thelike, are also printed on the tags.

At the present time, these tags are printed and attached to the garmentswith straight pins by machines such as shown in Patent Numbers2,023,045, 2,083,150 and 2,042,888. The tickets or tags are inserted inthe machine in the form of large rolls and are printed and attached bythe machine in a garment held by the operator.

One of the disadvantages of the printed tags is that the most importantinformation both to buyer and seller, namely, the size information isnot properly emphasized. It is just a small printed number on a ticketthat may contain twenty or more other numbers. Consequently, it isdiflicult for both the buyer and salesman to locate the proper size andmany a sale was lost forever either because the proper size cannot belocated or because the stock of a certain size has run out before thesalesman can notice and replace it. During a special sale event, thisfrequently happens and it is standard practice in the stores for thesales manager or section head to make a quick inventory periodicallyduring the day when a sale event is in progress. In order to facilitatefinding the correct size for the purposes of spot checking the sizes onhand, it is important that the tickets be distinctively marked as tosize.

One way to solve this problem is to use tickets or tags of differentcolors for the different sizes but this is impractical, since the rollson the ticketing machine would have to be replaced too often, whichslows down the ticketing operation. Also, the number of rolls and tagsrequired to be kept on hand would be prohibitive if ten or moredifferent colors of tags were required. This will be better appreciatedwhen it is realized that a large retail establishment which may havemany departments or different stores may now keep several milliontickets on hand. If eight or ten different colors of tags were required,it would require eight or ten times the number of rolls of tickets to bekept on hand.

The present invention provides means for achieving the desired resultswithout the necessity of maintaining any large inventory of tickets. Inthe present invention, easily replaceable means are provided andconnected to the tag printing and fastening machines for placing a colorcoatin strip along the tags of a certain size. More specifically, thepresent invention involves an improve ment to conventional taggingmachines comprising a mounting means for one or more lettering pens ofdifferent colors. The pen or pens are mounted so that they bear againstthe strip of tickets and mark the tickets with a continuous strip of asingle color or one or more combination of colors just before thetickets are printed.

The mounting means are adjustable and provide easy replacement of thepens .when a different color is required.

In a typical operation ten or twelve sizes may be marked including adozen garments of each size. The proper color pen is inserted for thefirst size and when the first dozen garments have been tagged, anotherpen of a different color for the next size is inserted. Alternatively,lettering pencils of the type having a multiplicity of colored leads maybe used. If the number of sizes is large, two or more pens may bemounted side by side to provide a dual color coating which will greatlyextend the number of sizes for a given number of colors.

Accordingly, a principal object of the invention is to provide means fordistinctively coding the size on retail sales tags.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for color codingsize information on sales tickets.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for distinctivelycolor coding tickets of the type which are fed to a ticket fasteningmachine in the form of a strip of tickets.

These and other objects of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing specification and drawings which show a view of an embodimentof the invention.

Figure 1 shows an embodiment of the invention,

Figures 2 and 3 show modifications of the embodiment of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawing Figure 1, a roll 1 of tickets is mounted on aspool 2 which is rotatably mounted on a shaft 3. The strip of tickets 4is fed through a pair of guide rails 5 and 6 and fed down to thehorizontal surface 7 upon which they are normally printed and fastenedto the garments as shown in the aforementioned Patents 2,023,045,2,083,150 and 2,042,888.

The present invention provides means for color coding the tickets beforethey are printed. More specifically, the color coding means comprises abracket 10 to which is attached a clip 11 which is adapted to hold acolor marking pen 12. The inner guide rail 6 may be slotted or partiallycut away to permit the point of the pen 12 to bear on the strip oftickets. Only one pen is shown in the embodiment. However, additionalclips may be provided so that two or more pens may provide parallellines on the strip of difierent color as shown in Figure 2. Of course,the second clip 20 would have to be displaced across the strip a certaindistance so that the second. pen would draw a line displaced from thefirst line.

Alternatively as in Figure 3, a pen mounting means: could be in the formof a turret 21 with several different;

color pens 22, 23, etc. mounted therein at different po-- sitions sothat the color could be changed by merely rotating the turret withoutactually moving the pens. Various other alternative means of mountingthe pen or marking device may be envisioned without departing from thescope of the invention.

I claim:

1. An adapter for tagging machines of the type having a roll of tags,means for printing said tags and means for fastening said tags;comprising means for distinctively marking said tags comprising colorcoding means connected to said machine adapted to mark said tags with adistinctive color, said color coding means comprising a lettering penadjustably and detachably connected to said machine adjacent a strip oftags from said roll whereby the color may be quickly and easily changedby changing the pen without the necessity of changing the roll of tags.

2. Means for color coding tags comprising a roll of tags in ribbon form,means for rotatably mounting said roll, a pair of guide membersconnected and adapted to guide said ribbon of tags, a lettering penadapted to extend through a cutout portion of said upper guide, said penbeing adjustably and detachably mounted whereby the color may be easilychanged.

3. Apparatus as in claim 2 having a pair of color coding pens.

4. Apparatus as in claim 2 having a turret with a plurality of colorcoding pens.

5. An adapter for tagging machines of the type having a roll of tags,means for printing said tags and means for fastening said tags;comprising means for distinctively marking said tags comprising colorcoding means connected to said machine adapted to mark said tags with adistinctive color, said color coding means comprising 4 a turret havinglettering pens mounted thereon, said turret being adjustably anddetachably connected to said machine adjacent a strip of tags from saidroll whereby the color may be quickly and easily changed by changingsaid pens Without the necessity of changing the roll of tags.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS681,932 Skirrow Sept. 3, 1901 1,125,969 Craig Jan. 26, 1915 1,577,998Arnold Mar. 23, 1926

